Novica Negovanović

Novica Negovanović was a Serbian composer, accordionist and singer of folk songs, born on 30 November 1945 in Adrani near Kraljevo. He grew up in a musical family, where his father and uncle played the accordion, showed his talent at five and played his first concert in the first grade of school.

1966 was the turning point: at the accordion competition in Soko Banja he won first place twice, as a soloist and in a duet with Dragan Matić Žilić, and took the title of first accordion of Yugoslavia. The same year he became a professional singer, toured with Lepa Lukić and others, and recorded his first single, "Ah zašto te pre ne sretoh". Through the 1970s he was among the most popular accordionists in Yugoslavia, and his kolo dances, above all "Pericino kolo", drew many young players after him, before he turned more to singing and writing songs.

His biggest hits came between 1970 and 1980: "Zar sam stranac u svom kraju", "Vodeničar na Moravi", "Sve bledi, sve nestaje", "Kad umoran budem pao", "Jedna reka u mom kraju" and many more. In 1976 he won the Beogradski sabor festival with "Ne vraćam se više u tuđinu kletu" and was named singer of the year. For ten years he was the chief music editor of the label Jugodisk in Belgrade, and from 1989 to 2003 he lived and worked in America.

He wrote many songs for other singers: "Janičar" for Predrag Gojković Cune, "Ko se jednom napije vode sa Baščaršije" and "Ja sam čovjek od meraka" for Safet Isović, and songs for Muharem Serbezovski, Toma Zdravković, Zorica Brunclik and others. In 2020 he received the award of national folk music artist of Serbia.

Novica Negovanović returned to live in Adrani and passed his love of the accordion on to young players. His son Dragan and daughter Mirjana also make music. He died in Kruševac on 9 August 2021, at the age of 75.